Nevertheless, concerns with brand safety take a backseat to other issues for digital media buyers. In this latest survey, respondent were asked to rank their top-3 concerns from a list of 6 identified. ROI took the top spot, with 31% choosing it as their number 1 concern when it comes to digital media buying, and 59% placing it among their top-3 concerns.

Ad fraud received the next-largest share of votes for the top concern (19%), whereas viewability ranked second in terms of the proportion of top-3 votes (54%).

While just 7% ranked brand safety / premium content their leading concern, a slight majority (51%) placed it within their top 3. In the aggregate, then, this appears to be a bigger issue for digital media buyers than programmatic transparency and ad blocking.

Buyers Are Paying Closer Attention

The majority (56%) of respondents involved in digital and mobile advertising agreed that they’ve taken deliberate efforts to improve the brand safety of their digital media buys, and more than one-third (35%) haven’t yet done so but plan to in the future.

The most common steps taken include blacklisting specific sites/channels (56%), monitoring/auditing site lists (54%) and avoiding or limiting political content and sites (54%).

While fewer (40%) have increased their use of programmatic guaranteed / private marketplaces, another 41% plan to do so in the future.

Just one-third (34%) rate Facebook highly (top-3 box on a 10-point scale) on its ability to offer a brand-safe environment, but even that is a higher level than observed among other social platforms. Indeed, only 1 in 4 give YouTube (27%), Twitter (26%) and Snapchat (25%) a comparable rating on their ability to deliver a brand-safe environment.

About the Data: The results are based on a survey of 287 digital decision-makers involved in digital and mobile advertising from the Advertiser Perceptions Omnibus panel.